Lune

Comparisons

Lune vs Scira

Scira is open-source AI search that spans the web, X, Reddit, videos and research papers, free to use. Lune indexes one of those and reads it in full. The comparison is really about what you want in the index.

Install the connectorSee pricingscira.ai

Start with the one you should not buy from us

If the first list is you, take Scira.

Choose Scira if

  • You want one free search box for the web, social and papers.
  • Open source matters and you want to read or host the code.
  • Fact-checking across mixed sources is the job.

Choose Lune if

  • You cite papers, and a Reddit thread is not evidence.
  • You want the paragraph inside the paper, not a link to it.
  • You need the tools available to your agent through MCP.

From a question to a citation

Scira

  1. Search web and social
  2. Rank the sources
  3. Cited answer

Lune

  1. Search top-tier venues
  2. Read the full text
  3. Quote with a locator
Everything in one index, or one thing indexed properly.

Line by line

Marks the side we think wins. We mark the ones we lose.

  • What it searches

    Lune

    Peer-reviewed papers from top-tier venues. Nothing else.

    Scira

    The web, X, Reddit, videos, papers and fact-checks.

  • Who filters quality

    Lune

    Lune wins this row. Peer review, before anything is indexed.

    Scira

    The ranking model, at answer time.

  • How deep a citation goes

    Lune

    Lune wins this row. A verbatim quote and its locator, per claim.

    Scira

    Cited answers linking to the sources used.

  • How you run it

    Lune

    Hosted. Install a connector and go.

    Scira

    Scira wins this row. Hosted, and the code is on GitHub.

  • Price

    Lune

    Free for 10 requests a day, then $4.99 a month or $47.90 a year.

    Scira

    Scira wins this row. Free to use.

  • Agent access

    Lune

    Lune wins this row. MCP and a CLI, on every plan.

    Scira

    No MCP server listed on their site.

Where the difference comes from

One index for everything

Scira's scope is its pitch: ask once and it looks at the web, social posts, videos and papers together. For a question where the answer might be in any of those, that is exactly right, and being open source means you can check how it works.

For a scientific claim it is exactly wrong, because the model has to decide between a peer-reviewed paper and a confident forum post. Lune removes that decision by never holding the forum post.

Free, and what it does not include

Scira costs nothing, and Lune's free tier is ten requests a day. On price alone this is not close.

What the price buys is full text: parsing accepted papers at ingest so a tool can return the ablation table or the stated limitation, and so verify_claims can answer a sentence with the line that supports it.

What your agent can call

  • search_papers
  • search_papers_many
  • search_related_papers
  • get_paper_fulltext
  • get_paper_citations
  • extract_from_papers
  • verify_claims
  • gather_evidence
  • list_conferences
  • get_conference_papers
  • search_research_guidance
  • get_research_guidance_doc

One connection, in Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, ChatGPT or anything else that speaks MCP. The same tools back the miniapps in the Lune dashboard.

Price

Lune

Free
$0 10 requests a day, every tool
Pro
$4.99 a month or $47.90 a year, 300 requests a day
Max
$9.99 a month or $95.90 a year, 600 requests a day
Credits
$0.99 300 extra requests, no expiry

Scira

Free
$0 open source, no card

Scira publishes its source on GitHub. Prices move; treat this as a snapshot, not a quote.

What we read

Questions

Is Lune a Scira alternative?
For scientific questions, yes. For general web and social search, no, and Lune has no index for those.
Is Scira free?
Yes, and open source. Lune's free tier is 10 requests a day with every tool enabled.
Can I use both?
That is a sensible setup: Scira for the open web, Lune for anything you will cite.

Trustworthy AI for Scientific Research

Free to start. Every tool from the first request.

Try Lune All comparisons